Rufus has only insisted on eating just a few pieces of kibble at a time, but he always takes it from his bowl, walks to the far side of the house, eats it, and then repeats until he is full. It’s an intense process but I guess he is getting his exercise in while eating? Some dogs are just strange… but it’s kind of adorable so we roll with it….

Chloe and Gracie Bean do the same thing. They take several pieces of their food and carry it into the living room, drop it on the rug and eat it one piece at a time. They repeat this until they’re satisfied. I thought it was an unusual practice….but I guess not!!

Hmmm, from the comments, it seems like a common problem. I’ve seen dogs at the shelter tip their bowls over and eat off the floor. From the photo, it looks like Georgia gets canned food, too. What happens if you mush the kibble and the canned food together, so she can’t pick out just the kibble? Will she drop the soft food all over the floor, too?

She will only eat the canned food if I form it into little meatballs and feed it to her with my fingers. She will only eat the kibble if I spill some on the floor. She’s a strange one! I hope that with time, she will start eating more normally. Poor girl is just starting to get settled into a real life!

Funny little girl, totally adorbs! What would she think about kibble from a wobble gong that drops it on the floor for her? I’m guessing that would be a bit too much work for her to be interested though 😉

Petey did that when I first got him, I guess it was from living on the streets and having to safeguard his food. And I would like throw this out there…Petey goes NUTS when we are at the beach and anyone (human or canine) goes swimming. He will swim out to the yipping in his upset bark, which people find alarming.
Any ideas?
Thanks!

Anyway, that’s one of the things people recommend to use up a dog’s energy; spread their kibble around so they have to hunt around and pick it up. Maybe she’s self regulating? Or maybe she never ate from a bowl before and it’s weird and moves. Who knows?

I wonder if preferring to eat from the floor is common for dogs who spent time as strays. It makes sense also in that when eating from the floor, their vision is not obstructed like it may be if they are eating from a bowl. My girl, who was a stray, had problems with the bowl at first, particularly with water, and it was recommended to me to try a bowl with lower sides (more like a flat serving platter than a traditional bowl). She started improving with the bowl about then, so I never tried it, but I’ve heard of it working for other dogs who had bowl issues.

Ha ha ha ha, oh Georgia, how I love you. This reminds me SO much of our sweet Felix when we rescued him. He wouldn’t eat out of a bowl. We started putting kibbles on the floor (what a pain), then he graduated to a plate (imagine filling a shallow water plate several thousand times a day!), then to a very low sided “serving tray” style bowl and FINALLY! like 3 months later, we finally got him eating out of a bowl. Frequently, the little nut bar would still pick up a mouthful from his bowl, carry it a few steps away, gob it out onto the floor and eat it a piece at a time. Apparently nothing tastes as good as “floor food”. Good luck with that silly habit, Georgia!

Kibble from a bowl is boring. Kibble from the floor is a treat!
There are some great suggestions here as to why she might be doing this. Such a wealth of information. Someone should compile all these tips into some sort of dog fostering/rescue resource.